More than 600 athletes to compete this week

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Outside coverage

Vicki Emmerson waited for opening ceremonies at the National Veterans Wheelchair Games to begin Monday night in the Spokane Arena, checking to make sure she had the most important item in her bag, besides a camera.

“Kleenex,” Emmerson said. She had tissue in one hand, and a U.S. flag in the other.

It was the first time Emmerson had come to watch her father-in-law, Thomas Emmerson, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who served in the Vietnam War, participate in the annual competition for disabled veterans.

The games – the largest wheelchair event in the nation – is presented by the Paralyzed Veterans of America and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Athletes will compete in 17 events over five days, with closing ceremonies set for Saturday at the Spokane Convention Center.

“I think we can’t do enough for our veterans,” said Emmerson, next to her husband, Terrance.

“We need to be reminded freedom isn’t free.”

The proud families, supporters and thousands of volunteers may have been misty-eyed as the athletes wheeled out state by state, but the more than 600 athletes were all smiles and “oorahs!”

The athletes, from nearly every state, Puerto Rico and Great Britain, gathered backstage waiting to enter the arena.

The ceremony included a torch lighting, and athletes shouted into megaphones and patted one another on the back.

“This is the first time many of them have seen each other in a year,” said coach and Army veteran Troy Hicks, from Memphis, Tenn.

More than competitive spirit and dealing with challenges in the face of adversity, the games are about camaraderie and friendship, Hicks said.

The athletes range in age from 18 to over 80.

“We really look forward to it every year,” said David Bradbury, a disabled Army veteran and prosthetic specialist from South Carolina.

Bradbury said he was eager to see how Spokane measures up, in terms of handicap access.

One year at the games in New York City, all 700 athletes stayed in one hotel. They had access to what he called the best transportation system in the country.